Rating: 
Summary: A documentary?
Review: I bought this DVD in part because it was recommended to me by a fellow fan of H.G. Bissinger's magnificent book, "Friday Night Lights" who described this documentary as "FNL in movie form."While I still found it inferior to FNL, "Go Tigers" is a suberb documentary in the vein of "Hoop Dreams." Go Tigers follows the Massillon High School Tigers football team through the 1999 season. The Tigers are a legendary team in the state of Ohio. In fact, in 1951, a newsreel was put together chronicling the enormous success of the program - "11 state championships in the last 15 seasons, more college players and captains than any other school in the nation, etc." However, in 1998, the Tigers were a lackluster 4-6, a losing record almost unheard of in the program's long and storied history. The 1999 Tigers are not only playing to recapture the respect due their inheritance, but to convince the citizens of Massillon to approve a school levy that will bring in much needed funds to their deteriorating school. The players, coaches, boosters, parents, and everyone else associated with the team understands that the riding on the success of their team is not only community pride and bragging rights, but perhaps the fate of their school and thus, their football program as well. The documentary mostly focuses on the Tigers' tri-captains: Their star quarterback, middle linebacker, and defensive tackle. These three are the core of the team, and on their young shoulders ride the hopes and dreams of an entire community.
Rating: 
Summary: A surprisingly well-done and interesting documentary.
Review: I live in a town that I considered to be big on high school sports. I was wrong. This film portrays a town controlled by football so incredibly well. It shows harsh and brutal reality, as well as unpredictability and compassion. This film follows the people of Massilon, Ohio, a town where the Massilon High School Tigers football team rules everything. It wonderfully portrays the people and the lifestyles of the town. The film follows the three team captain, the coach and lots of random other towns people. This documentary brings up big questions about whether sports are more important than education, social and ecemonical classes, high school "recruiting" and tax payers views on levy's to save the school. This team is so popular in this town that all the money from the school system is pumped into the football program. You play football or care about football or become an outcast. There are pep rallies every week, stores devoted completely to the team and they even have an actual tiger for their mascot. But with this football program being so big, the school is beginning to fail. A levy is proposed to help fix them, but with the tigers coming off of a 4-6 losing season, it seems impossible to pass a levy without having an awesome season. This documentarian has entered into this project not knowing the outcome and has made a brilliant film otu of it. This is a must see for nearly anyone. It is highly enjoyable, funny, suspenseful and dramatic. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: A documentary?
Review: I rented it from all the positive reviews here. I was quite disappointed. It has A LOT, I mean TONS of footage from all the different games throughout the seasons, and not enough interviews. The movie was geared more on 'glorifying' the Massillion High School football team to say the least. It could've been a lot better.
Rating:
Summary: Go Tigers is great documentary!
Review: I saw this film at the Sundance Film Festival, it's first showing in the country. As a Massillon native, this does document well the city's passion for football. If you are a football fan, it is an interesting must see about high school football and a small midwest town.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest
Review: I've seen this movie, it's the best documentary, because it happened at my school and my senior year! If you love football you'll love this movie!
Rating:
Summary: Must See Docudrama
Review: If you're a fan of sports and well-done movies....Go Tigers is for you! Much like "Hoop Dreams", this movie takes you through the season, (on and off the field) of three high school athletes. I can watch this movie again and again.... its well worth it!!
Rating:
Summary: Go Tigers! En excellent Documentary
Review: People talk about the over-hype of football in this town, but they don't understand. I have been to this town, seen the pre-game festivities, witnessed first hand the way this town all come together on a friday night, everyone, to cheer on their team. It's the real life Varsity Blues, and it is amazing to see. Everywhere you go in Massilion there are paw prints, murals, signs, and fans. The movie does an excellent job of accurately portraying the feelings and emotions of this town and they way they view life. If you ever get the opportunity, I recommend you experience it for yourself, that is If you can get tickets to a game!
Rating: 
Summary: Two thumbs up for "Go Tigers"
Review: The documentary film maker, Kenneth Carlson, succeeds in building his comedy of manners toward a dramatic conclusion. This documentary is a comedy in the sense "Go Tigers" has a happy ending, the main characters' situations in life improve throughout the film and the film is generally sunny though there are dark undercurrents to life in the city of Massillon, Ohio.
"Go Tigers" is not about the game of football, it is about the effect of the game on a small town. Massillon is barely a city and its ~30,000 people maintain a high school football stadium for 15,000+ people with a professional quality field and sports plant. The Massillon High School is a football factory and the film follows three players and selected family members through an undefeated season.
There are some fantastic sequences of football that overshadow current U of A play because these boys are so consistently good. The game sequences gloss over the details of play, showing over the top fans, the band, parents of the central characters, cutting in and out to fantastic plays. That is why I say it is not "about" football because, while the score board and play boards are shown there is minimal coverage of rules, technique, field position or strategy.
Locker room half time pep talks are given center stage. The locker room scenes feature pointless rants and strings of obscenity by the players interspersed by level headed coaching and inspirational sermons by all Massillon's denominations. The team always comes out energized by this motivation.
Massillon is NOT a wealthy city, so a theme is "where does the money come from"? The choices made by citizens are a plot thread that runs through the lives of three players and their families. You'll need to see the film if you want to know more.
I will say, the strength and conditioning coach is an awesome, professional caliber athlete. There is an all too brief walk on part by an opposing team's mascots who are fall down laughing funny.
The film covers town darkness, but not with a great deal of emphasis. For example, the live tiger cub mascot mauls a small child in front of his mother. The film maker is not blatant about the subtle points that are made about Massillon.
My one criticism of "Go Tigers" is that this film is 20 minutes too long. It lingers over several football games in way too much detail, but at the same time not enough. The games are covered in a superficial way without enough reference to play to make the games interesting. Excited fans don't move the plot forward and you see them over and over and over and....
Rating: 
Summary: You've Got to Be Kidding!
Review: The game footage here is very good, except it is constantly interrupted, and has no continuity. Some of the interviews seem genuine, while others are obviously staged. The students and players act as if they were given the green light by the director to be as gross and obnoxious as possible. In that, they succeeded.
Entries at the Sundance Film Festival must be awful indeed for this film to be a Grand Prize nominee. The coaches stand around in the locker room, while the players take turns giving each other the cursing of their lives. I was rooting for the opposing team to give Massillon a beating every game.
I can't recommend this film to anyone. It doesn't teach about football, the language is awful. I don't feel I know anything about Ohio football that I didn't know before I saw the film. I hope the Tigers are not a typical team in Ohio.
For a real football film, I recommend "The Last Game".
Rating: 
Summary: It's like crack, on steroids
Review: This is a film about a small town doped up on sports and religion, where kids - and I mean KIDS - play out parts for adults to further adult agendas of competition, superiority, and economic success.
The KIDS - and I emphase that - are easily hooked into the town's mass hysteria. After all, as one high-schooler puts it, "the football players can get away with anything." In an effort to please their parents and teachers, they get hyped on the game and sacrifice their identities... in exchange for trophy girlfriends and (apparently) adult-supported drinking parties.
A word about the drinking... since when DO high school *KIDS* get encouraged to drink and puke all over your house? And while we're at it, let's ask another question: since when do KIDS get tattoos? Don't you have to be 18 for that? Or perhaps these kids *are* 18 - at least - since we are told that a large amount of these players have been held back a grade or two to guarantee better chances of being bigger and stronger as seniors and - by extension - better football players.
But maybe that's going to be OK after all. One night of binging followed by a round of organized Christian prayer at school - PUBLIC school, mind you - will absolve all of any wrong doing.
These are children who are being plied with superficial elements of adulthood to guarantee their allegiance to the town's sole bringer of happiness, however false that is.
If we wonder WHY pro athletes take steroids and "cheat" to win, look no further. One lie begets another. After all, if parents want to hold their kids back a grade in school, "it's their right as an American," as the Tigers' head coach informs us.
And if we wonder why kids aren't being prepared for college, and - the most important issue we face as a nation - getting EDUCATED to further themselves and this country, maybe we should reexamine the role of sports on our culture.
In a nation embroiled in red state/blue state battle, with "morality" as the battle cry, I wonder why this film isn't causing an uproar. Apparently, people do not care about what's right or fair - only who wins. It is too bad that people - in their near-sightedness - see only short term victory, when the long term battles are about to be lost.
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